The Law Society has negotiated major changes for Britain’s leading international law practices in plans that will mean firms can employ the world’s best and brightest legal workers from overseas.

The Society has witnessed many of its suggestions to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) replicated in the MAC’s official plans submitted to the Government this week in regards to the UK visa points-based system, which controls the amount of migrant workers entering into jobs in Britain.

The principle idea pointed out to MAC was that immigrants working within the UK’s international law sector are often highly qualified and receive a higher than average salary, therefore being able to make a significant input to the domestic economy. This is coupled with the desirable benefit that these workers do not pose a significant risk of abusing of the UK immigration system.

As a result of the Law Society’s recommendations the MAC has advised the Government to lift the restrictions on highly skilled workers within the Tier 1 points-based-system.

The president of the Law Society, Robert Heslett, said;

“Recruitment of the very best talent from the global marketplace underpins the success of leading international law firms that focus on developing talent to take advantage of opportunities in key emerging markets such as China and India.

“This strategic imperative means that non-EEA recruits, with foreign language skills and experience, are a vital component of a firm’s ability to remain competitive. The MAC proposals reflect the importance of allowing professionals with such skills to work for British law firms and in turn make a valuable contribution to our economy.”

The Law Society collaborated with some of Britain’s most prestigious international law firms in collecting a strong, evidence-lead submission to the MAC. Key subjects identified by the Society have been investigated and resolved in the MAC findings.

The MAC report, which centres on Tier 1 of the UK visa points-based-system, illustrates to Government the benefits of removing the requirement for highly-skilled migrant employees in Tier 1 to possess a Master’s degree.

In February 2009, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that the rules for Tier 1 UK visas would be tightened so that only workers applying with a Master’s degree would have the number of points to qualify.

Because Master’s degrees are not standard in the legal sector the changes meant a disturbance of the market where experienced lawyers, fully able of creating large amounts of money for law firms were not allowed to enter the UK via the Tier 1 visa if they were not accredited with a Master’s degree.

The Law Society’s view that specialist qualifications should be held alongside and equivalent to a Master’s degree for the reasons of the UK visa points-based-system was also identified in the MAC report.

Robert Heslett says:

“There is little doubt that the current system needs to be less restrictive to ensure Britain remains the jurisdiction of choice.

“Aspects of the current PBS make it more difficult for City firms to attract the best legal talent from the global labour market. It reduces the mobility of lawyers within the international networks of UK-based firms, deters entrepreneurial overseas lawyers from doing business in Britain and may lead to clients taking their legal business to other jurisdictions.

“The opening of overseas legal markets is a priority for the Society, and the competitive position of UK exporters of legal services in respect of international markets is delicately balanced. Any perception that the domestic legal market is becoming more closed to overseas lawyers and law firms might result in further restrictions on the ability of UK lawyers to do business abroad.

“We will continue to promote improvements to the system which ensure that UK law firms are not placed at a competitive disadvantage.”

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